DENVER, CO. – OCTOBER 25: Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery encouraged the team late in the third period. The University of Denver hockey team defeated Niagara 5-1 at Magness Arena Friday night, October 25, 2013. Photo By Karl Gehring/The Denver Post

As far as upsets go, this had to be considered one of the biggest of the young college hockey season. Although unranked, the University of Denver was a heavy favorite to send Canisius back to Buffalo at 0-3.

DU allowed the game’s first three goals and was dumped 4-1 by Canisius in front of a disappointed Magness Arena crowd. The Pioneers held a commanding edge in shots but couldn’t finish in front of 6-foot-5 goalie Keegan Asmundson, who started his first game of the season and third of his career.

Asmundson was perfect until Quentin Shore redirected in a blast from Nolan Zajac with 7:43 left in regulation to close the deficit to 3-1.

DU goalie Sam Brittain was pulled for a sixth attacker but that move led to an empty-net goal with 2:31 to go.

The Pioneers (3-3) held a 37-21 shots advantage and faced a team that blew a 2-0 lead Friday and lost at Air Force 3-2. The Griffins opened the season by losing to Niagara 6-4.

“The season is a process, it’s a journey,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said. “Canisius did a great job, were well prepared and they executed at a high level. I really liked our effort as a team but our execution of the details wasn’t great. We wanted to make Canisius play 200-foot hockey like we did against Niagara but didn’t do a good job of it.”

Canisius scored its three goals on a redirection off a shot from the point, a breakaway and a great individual effort that made it 3-0 midway through the second period. The breakaway came during a DU power play, when penalty-killer Kyle Gibbons intercepted Joey LaLeggia’s risky D-to-D pass inside the Griffins’ blue line. Gibbons went wrist shot, glove side, on Brittain.

“Plays like that cannot happen,” LaLeggia said.

The backbreaking goal was Mathew Backhouse’s bad-angle tap-in while falling to his stomach. Zajac obviously didn’t think Backhouse had an opportunity after losing an edge and going down, but he placed the puck in front of the near post and whacked it in.

“The problem was execution and you have to credit Canisius,” LaLeggia said. “They capitalized on their chances and had a very good goalie tonight.”

Denver begins its first season in the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference on Friday against visiting Nebraska Omaha. The two-game series concludes Saturday at Magness Arena.

“Coach Montgomery is a great coach and we feel like we’re going to get better and better,” LaLeggia said.

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